November 1, 2019 • 22 mins
Stairs that lead to nowhere. Hidden passages. Upside down pillars. Since it's 1923 opening to the public, the Winchester Mystery House has attracted millions of visitors, and even inspired a movie in 2018. But what is the story behind the house's creator, Sarah Winchester? Did she build the house to confuse vengeful ghosts as legend suggests, or was it the product of her whimsical design ideas? Anney and Samantha are on the case!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stuff.
I never told your protection of I heart Radios how
stuff works. You know. This is our third recording, and
saying my name is getting really weird because I feel
like I don't say it right. Oh I've already said
(00:27):
on this podcast before. I feel like I don't say
my name correctly because everyone would always question me about it,
and so now I say my name like a question
and it really frustrates me. I'm working on it. I
think mine is because of my Korean accent, like I
don't have one anymore, but growing up younger I did
trying to learn English, and so trying to say my name,
I still have a weird Korean infellection. I don't know,
(00:50):
so the sounds really weird to me. Well, that's is excellent.
Both of us start podcast with doubts about her own name.
That right, professionals only the best here. Um. So today
we have yet another kind of spooky Halloween episode. But
(01:10):
you know, you can listen to it whenever you want.
And I'm excited for the topic that we're doing for
this episode because we're talking about the Winchester Mystery House,
the one who built it and why kind of sounds
like it's gonna be a beginning of a Scooby Doo episode.
Oh no, I wish. I love Scooby Doo. It's been
(01:33):
a long time since I've seen it, so I hope
there's just not anything really problematic but it now, but
I did when I was a child, all right, but
topic for a later day today. The Winchester Mystery House.
Um So, this is modernly a tourist attraction located in
San Jose, California. Since it opened to the public in nineteen,
(01:56):
over twelve million people have visited it. I have never
been and desperately want to go so badly, So we
need to add this to our list. This is a
way we can even out the your stops with my stops.
Then yes, yes, yes, yes, pretty much equaled it out.
If all that you're excited about that one too, Yes,
(02:18):
I'll have to take a tally before I agreed to
our disagree with any of those. Um So. The Winchester
Mystery House that they have a Halloween candlelight tour, So
if any listeners have done that, please right now, and
a Friday the thirteenth flashlight tour. Right. It was also
made into a movie starring Helen Murrain semi recently, I
believe in Time magazine once labeled this house as one
(02:42):
of the world's most haunted destinations. The U. S Department
of Commerce has given it the Certified Haunted label, which
I'm not sure. I didn't know that was a label.
I guess it makes sense with like the Amitaville Horrhouse
Hotel level, I guess one of them. One of my
(03:04):
friends was she brought up the bell Witch how it's
for the only federal, federally recognized haunting in our history.
So that I want to do another episode on later
all scary stuff all the time. No, I promise I won't.
But anyway, this house is stunning. Until the nineteen o
(03:24):
six earthquake, it was seven stories. Now it's four stories.
The upper floors were deemed too dangerous to rebuild. At
its peak, it had an estimated and we'll get into
hy estimated one sixty rooms, ten thousand panes of glass,
and almost fifty fireplaces four thousand square feet. It's also
(03:44):
known as one of the most haunted houses in the
United States. It was commissioned by Sarah Winchester, who was
able to afford building such a spectacle because she inherited
the Winchester Rifled fortune after her husband died, she received
a stipend of one thousand dollars a day. Yeah, I
need that in twenty nineteen, that's equivalent to twenty six
thousand dollars a day. That's a lot because someone would
(04:06):
give me that. I we can work on that. Okay,
we can work on that. So that's what it is
modern ly. But what about historically, how did we get
this spectacle of a supposedly haunted house. Well, we'll get
into that after a quick break forward from our sponsor
(04:39):
and we're back. Thank you sponsor, and we're back with
another disclaimer. What as with our Female serial Killers episode? Uh,
there's a lot of a lot of legend out there
about this place, a lot of I guess exaggeration, embellishment
of details throughout history of why it exists. And Um,
(05:02):
Sarah Winchester was a very private person, so there isn't
too much that we have concrete evidence wise when it
comes to her and her motivations for building this house.
Um the official tour guides at the Winchester House are
quick to point that out themselves. Um So as such. Yeah,
we've filled in the blanks with our modern interpretation that
(05:24):
essentially she was mentally ill and or a recluse. But
according to the guides, this was probably not the case. Um.
For instance, a lot of people like to point to
the seance room. There's a room that seems to have
been used for seances. It might not have been, but
that's what the historians seem to agree upon. But those
(05:45):
were actually kind of common back then seances. So it's
not like she was being super weird in quotes that
that was actually something people did. Um. There are two
main narratives that she built house to confuse ghosts, or
that she built it as a hobby and the house's
(06:05):
uniqueness was the result of her changing her mind or
simply mistakes, or because she didn't have any design experience.
There were no blueprints for this house. She was just like, hey,
you know what, never mind, forget that hallway, let's go
over here. But okay, let's get into some of the history.
Sarah Winchester was born as Sarah Lockwood Party and was
born in New Haven, Connecticut, in eighteen thirty nine. She
(06:29):
grew up comfortably in a well off family. She attended
some of the best schools in the area and learned
four different languages. In eighteen sixty two, when she was
twenty three, she married William Wart Winchester. William and Sarah
wed and started their life as a married couple in Connecticut.
But then William got to work at where else but
the family business, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. This company
(06:50):
made the Winchester Repeating rifle, essentially a single barrel rifle
capable of holding a couple of rounds, and this business
made them rich. Oh yeah. Four years into their marriage,
in eighteen sixty six, Sarah gave birth to a daughter.
They named her Annie. Tragically, the baby died only a
few weeks later, stricken by marasmus. Perhaps obviously, Mrs Winchester
(07:14):
was never the same. Meanwhile, the gun that won the West,
a K Model seventy three, was released in eighteen seventy three.
In eighteen eighty, William's father and the owner of Winchester
Repeating Arms, died, leaving his company to his son. William
himself died in one from tuberculosis, leaving Sarah with half
(07:35):
of the shares of the Winchester company. And also that
twenty six thousand dollars a day we mentioned earlier, and
a lump sum of twenty million dollars or five hundred
million dollars in today's money. This was another blow to
Sarah's psyche her husband's death. Some believed, to seek comfort
from her grief, she sought out a medium, and the
(07:58):
popular telling of the story, the medium did not provide comfort,
but instead added to Sarah's turmoil, insinuating that vengeful spirits
were targeting her, in particular vengeful ghost who had died
at the wrong end of a Winchester rifle. They were
behind the deaths of her husband and child, according to
this medium and in this story, and if Sarah wasn't careful,
(08:21):
she would be their next victim. Wow. Can you imagine
getting that advice from a mediums night? The medium advised
Sarah to go out west and build a house large
enough for all the spirits haunting her. And again this
seeing a medium wasn't uncommon at the time. A lot
(08:41):
of women lost their loved ones during the Civil War
and we're looking for ways to communicate with them. During
this time, people were bombarded with advertisements for moving out west.
And this is because California had only recently been incorporated
into the US, and the government on folks to move
out there. So maybe the medium was working for the government,
(09:06):
or maybe Sarah just saw an ad and acted upon it.
You know, we do that all the time now, not
that specifically, but so Sarah when Chester, she didn't need
to be told twice, and she made her way out
west to San Francisco, California, very quickly. Yes, however, she
found the weather they're really messed with her arthritis, so
she moved to San Jose four. She had purchased forty
(09:29):
acres of land, which grew into a hundred sixty acres,
and began building on it. She would continue building on
it until her death nearly forty years later. In n
At first, she contracted construction workers, perhaps numbering thirteen at
the time, to build an eight room house. Over the years,
the project ballooned, growing bigger and bigger. Her original intent
(09:49):
was to build a house big enough for her sisters
and herself, so no plans were drawn up, and she
designed it somewhat haphazardly, or perhaps designed it. It's a
strong word, you know. She called it Yaada villa. She
paid her workers well and often purchased them homes to
live in while they worked on her home. On top
of the construction crew, she employed eighteen servants and eighteen gardeners.
(10:12):
They split shifts so that they could work twenty four seven. Allegedly,
they only stopped when Sarah died and left so abruptly
that nails were left half hammered. I find that hard
to believe, but that is how the Internet tells it
in several places. Its story. It is a good story.
She insisted that only red would be used, even though
(10:34):
she didn't like how it looked, so workers were instructed
to cover it up with a stain and faux grain,
which ended up being twenty thousand gallons of paint. The
house also featured some technological rarities of that time, like
indoor plumbing, including indoor running hot water, forced air heating,
and gas lighting operated by pushing a button. So, of course,
(10:57):
it didn't take too long for rumors to starched by
about the house and its owners. Locals and workers on
the project believed it to be haunted all kinds of things,
bells rained by themselves, window opening closing seemingly on their own.
Some workers purportedly claimed every day she held seances to
reach good spirits. Some believed her communications with these good
(11:17):
spirits were the impetus behind her ever shifting design ideas.
Stories abound about Sarah that she refused to be photographed,
that she refused to grant Teddy Roosevelt's request for an
audience with the Winchester widow. And we have to remember two.
At this time, any woman living by herself, owning her
own property was caused for gossip. Take that and multiply
(11:40):
it by an enormous, eye catching mansion, and stories were
sure to be rife. Even these days, A few things
are scarier than a woman living by herself. Agreed, all
this haunted stuff is fun. But historian jen and bow
(12:01):
him Um apologies if I'm mispronouncing your name, argues that
it was less a protection against angry ghost and more
of a hobby. A lot of these stories don't come
from Winchester herself or any historical records, kind of like
we said, but books written in the nineties sixties, after
the tourist attraction had been open for several decades. The
houses quirks could have been a result of a changing
(12:24):
mind and like design experience, as we said, and or
could have been away for Sarah to remind herself of
the good time she had with her husband William building
their house in New Haven. But let's talk about some
of those quirks. Yes, let's go. So. Winchester thought that
the sounds of constant construction would cover up any supernatural sounds.
Smart to mean. She sought to confuse ghosts with hidden passages,
(12:45):
windows in the floors, upside down pillars, ridiculously shallow covered
and deaden stairwells, not stairways to heaven. Different thing. Yeah,
exactly one door opens the door to nowhere, to a
twelve foot drop about three point seven ms is nicknamed
the mother in law suit, which seems odd as she
(13:05):
loved the stained glass windows there are heavily featured throughout
the house, and many of them designed by Tiffany and Company.
Which is they again? I like that? Let me go see.
Those two are inscribed with quotes from Shakespeare wide unclassed
the tables of their thoughts, and these same thoughts people,
this little world. People have put a lot of thought
(13:26):
to why she chose those two quotes. I would have
a thing on that for a while. We'll get back
to you. The house is also rife with iterations of
the number thirteen. Like we said earlier, there are some
stories that she hired construction workers and shifts of thirteen.
Hard to say if that's actually true, but you can't
say that it's true in the house because there's evidence
(13:46):
thirteen coat hooks, thirteen panels on the ceiling, thirteen bathrooms,
but only one functioned to prevent ghosts from haunting it,
particularly this what is it called this? Piggott Yeah Um.
Decorative spider web patterns appear throughout the house as well,
which at the time I believed to be good luck.
(14:07):
One staircase near the cure dream as forty four steps
and seven turns. The historian we mentioned earlier believes that
this has more to do with Sarah's arthritis and less
to do with bamboozling spirits. The room that is thought
to have been a seance room has one entrance and
three exits. One cabinet extends through thirty rooms. I have
(14:30):
got to see this place, Samantha. Um. There's a section
of the house referred to as the Hall of Fires
due to the seven sources of heat feeding into it.
Um and that historian thinks again that this has to
do with providing relief for Sarah's arthritis, and according to legend,
each night she slept in a different bed and took
secret passageway to us not to be followed. Some theories
suggests she believed that when construction on the house stop,
(14:52):
she would die. Other theories positive she thought the earthquake
that took out three stories of the house was caused
by spirits who realized her project was close to completion.
And yet another day puts forward that Sarah was actually
a member of a mystic society or mystic societies, and
perhaps inspired by Francis Bacon, the English philosopher. In eighty eight,
(15:12):
Sarah's niece, Marian Merriman moved in to the house and
remained there for fifteen years. At the time of Sarah's
death to heart failure in nine two, the house posted
a whopping ten thousand windows, two thousand doors, not all
that can be walked through, and then yes, the one
sixty rooms, which is actually an estimate forty seven series,
(15:32):
thirteen bathrooms, six kitchens, three elevators, and two basements. She
had invested five point five million dollars in the mansion,
and in today's money that would be about seven point
seven million, and it's a beautiful piece of Queen and
Revival architecture. While she left most of her belongings to
relatives and nonprofits, there were thirteen parts to her will.
(15:54):
The will did not name anyone as the new owner
of the house. She did leave a lot of the
furniture to her niece, who auctioned off most of it.
One story goes that it took six months to get
all of the furniture out um The house itself was
auctioned off after praisers declared its strange designed rendered it worthless.
So the house was leased by John and Main Brown
(16:15):
forty five thousand dollars, who originally planned to build one
of the America's first roller coasters on the space, but
after the public expressed so much interest in the house itself,
they shifted gears, opening up for tours, which is smart.
The roller coaster was never built. They opened up Sarah's gardens,
calling them Winchester Park, and a few years later the
Browns purchased the house outright On how areeen Night in
(16:38):
Harry Houdini, the magician, stopped by the mansion to get
to the bottom of the house's paranormal reputation. Instead, he
left feeling even more confused and debbed it the Mystery House.
Within a decade it was being marketed as such. So
just to be clear, this is a year after it's
opened for tours. They already got like a celebrity coming
(16:59):
in course, in June, John Brown dies, his wife and
two daughters completely take over running tours until Maymie Brown
died in ninety one. In the nineteen sixties, a road
was renamed Winchester Boulevard and the gardens were closed to
make way for Century theaters, and the Winchester Wax Museum
opened and the Winchester Mystery House was incorporated. The house
(17:22):
was bestowed with State Historic Landmark status and added to
the National Registry of Historic Places in nineteen seventy four.
Throughout the eighties and nineties, the property was updated and
new tours added in It was labeled as a San
Jose Landmark. The two thousands saw even more renovations, updates,
and restorations. In sixteen, a secret attic was discovered containing
(17:43):
an organ, a dress form and sewing machine, a couch,
and some paintings. Forty forty new rooms were open to
the public, and this is why again, the room number
is an estimate because they're not sure they've found all
the rooms in that dang house. You just want to
go to say that for a month, don't you. Yeah.
I don't think they'd let me. But if anyone listening
(18:06):
as any connections, I'll go with you for sure. Alright,
perfect and then yes. The movie starring Helen Murin, called
Winchester debut for seventy two hours, the house was closed
to tourists for a jam packed filming schedule. Mirren said
of Sarah Winchester, she went into mourning and stayed in
mourning for the rest of her life. When you lose someone,
(18:27):
the losses can be so unbearable, so difficult, that the
only way you can deal with your grief is by
feeling that they are still with you in some way
or another. And if you're interested, the costumes from the
movie are on display at the site. They were donated
to the site by the filmmakers. So clearly we have
an interest with this mystery house, which is so fascinating
(18:49):
because she was someone who it seemed, shy away from attention,
wasn't into it, And now so many tourists have gone
and try to get to the bottom of her motivations.
What was she really thinking. We've made up all of
these stories about many legends, so many legends. Um. I
(19:11):
want to see it so badly. I wonder how many
horror films have started with the furniture to being sold
and being cards or something. I myself was in a
horror movie where it started that way and it did
not end well for me. I didn't what a fun
death scene that was. Um. Yeah, the just the interest
(19:33):
we have with with these kinds of things, I mean,
it's fascinating, it's it's historical one as well as you
never know. The creativity and thought process is fantastic. And
it is beautiful. I mean, looking outside before you go in,
if you know that it's a mystery house, you can
(19:54):
see some signs that there's something kind of wonky going
on in there. But from the outside it's just it's
beautiful and I can just like imagine her living there, right,
And if you've actually visited it, please send us pictures.
We would love to see somethingtures if you're able to
get any. Um. So now we're at the end, we're
(20:27):
gonna do our little shout outs. Yeah, I'm gonna shout
out to Uh, we're gonna shout out going the history route. Um.
Some of our podcasts, So What's Her Name Podcast with
host Olivia and Katie talk about fascinating women you may
not have heard of, like Mother Shipton and Infamous Witch
from England. That was a fun one. And then Notorious
Women Podcast which is a fun podcast with Lovetta and
(20:50):
Miriam taking a comical look at women in history. And
it's super fun if you get to go to listen
to those two. So shout out to you guys like
your podcast. Yes, um, and if you have any shout
outs that you want us to shout out, please send them.
Let it all out, send it our way. And for
for our listeners who are celebrating Halloween, please have a
(21:11):
fun and safe Helloween. If you've got a feminist costume,
oh we would love to see those, We would love it.
Let's feature those. I was a panda, You were a panda,
You were very you were increasingly grumpy, Hot with hand,
hot with unicorn corn panda. Yeah, it was great. With
(21:32):
my captain, what are you buy? You're my Captain Bucky? Now,
Captain Bucky, I was the winner soldier because it's my
favorite costume and you didn't get to see it at
Dragon Con, so I had to share you too good
to Oh, thank you. That's all I live for. You
can send to those costume pictures, or your shout outs
(21:53):
or anything else to our email address, Stuff Media mom
Stuff at i heeart media dot com. You can also
find us on Twitter or at mom Stuff podcast, or
on Instagram at Stuff I've Never Told You. Thanks as
always to a super producer, Andrew Howard. Thank you, Andrew,
and thanks to you for listening. Stuff I've Never Told
You the production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart
(22:15):
Radio app Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen to your favorite
shows
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stuff.
I never told your protection of I heart Radios how
stuff works. You know. This is our third recording, and
saying my name is getting really weird because I feel
like I don't say it right. Oh I've already said
(00:27):
on this podcast before. I feel like I don't say
my name correctly because everyone would always question me about it,
and so now I say my name like a question
and it really frustrates me. I'm working on it. I
think mine is because of my Korean accent, like I
don't have one anymore, but growing up younger I did
trying to learn English, and so trying to say my name,
I still have a weird Korean infellection. I don't know,
(00:50):
so the sounds really weird to me. Well, that's is excellent.
Both of us start podcast with doubts about her own name.
That right, professionals only the best here. Um. So today
we have yet another kind of spooky Halloween episode. But
(01:10):
you know, you can listen to it whenever you want.
And I'm excited for the topic that we're doing for
this episode because we're talking about the Winchester Mystery House,
the one who built it and why kind of sounds
like it's gonna be a beginning of a Scooby Doo episode.
Oh no, I wish. I love Scooby Doo. It's been
(01:33):
a long time since I've seen it, so I hope
there's just not anything really problematic but it now, but
I did when I was a child, all right, but
topic for a later day today. The Winchester Mystery House.
Um So, this is modernly a tourist attraction located in
San Jose, California. Since it opened to the public in nineteen,
(01:56):
over twelve million people have visited it. I have never
been and desperately want to go so badly, So we
need to add this to our list. This is a
way we can even out the your stops with my stops.
Then yes, yes, yes, yes, pretty much equaled it out.
If all that you're excited about that one too, Yes,
(02:18):
I'll have to take a tally before I agreed to
our disagree with any of those. Um So. The Winchester
Mystery House that they have a Halloween candlelight tour, So
if any listeners have done that, please right now, and
a Friday the thirteenth flashlight tour. Right. It was also
made into a movie starring Helen Murrain semi recently, I
believe in Time magazine once labeled this house as one
(02:42):
of the world's most haunted destinations. The U. S Department
of Commerce has given it the Certified Haunted label, which
I'm not sure. I didn't know that was a label.
I guess it makes sense with like the Amitaville Horrhouse
Hotel level, I guess one of them. One of my
(03:04):
friends was she brought up the bell Witch how it's
for the only federal, federally recognized haunting in our history.
So that I want to do another episode on later
all scary stuff all the time. No, I promise I won't.
But anyway, this house is stunning. Until the nineteen o
(03:24):
six earthquake, it was seven stories. Now it's four stories.
The upper floors were deemed too dangerous to rebuild. At
its peak, it had an estimated and we'll get into
hy estimated one sixty rooms, ten thousand panes of glass,
and almost fifty fireplaces four thousand square feet. It's also
(03:44):
known as one of the most haunted houses in the
United States. It was commissioned by Sarah Winchester, who was
able to afford building such a spectacle because she inherited
the Winchester Rifled fortune after her husband died, she received
a stipend of one thousand dollars a day. Yeah, I
need that in twenty nineteen, that's equivalent to twenty six
thousand dollars a day. That's a lot because someone would
(04:06):
give me that. I we can work on that. Okay,
we can work on that. So that's what it is
modern ly. But what about historically, how did we get
this spectacle of a supposedly haunted house. Well, we'll get
into that after a quick break forward from our sponsor
(04:39):
and we're back. Thank you sponsor, and we're back with
another disclaimer. What as with our Female serial Killers episode? Uh,
there's a lot of a lot of legend out there
about this place, a lot of I guess exaggeration, embellishment
of details throughout history of why it exists. And Um,
(05:02):
Sarah Winchester was a very private person, so there isn't
too much that we have concrete evidence wise when it
comes to her and her motivations for building this house.
Um the official tour guides at the Winchester House are
quick to point that out themselves. Um So as such. Yeah,
we've filled in the blanks with our modern interpretation that
(05:24):
essentially she was mentally ill and or a recluse. But
according to the guides, this was probably not the case. Um.
For instance, a lot of people like to point to
the seance room. There's a room that seems to have
been used for seances. It might not have been, but
that's what the historians seem to agree upon. But those
(05:45):
were actually kind of common back then seances. So it's
not like she was being super weird in quotes that
that was actually something people did. Um. There are two
main narratives that she built house to confuse ghosts, or
that she built it as a hobby and the house's
(06:05):
uniqueness was the result of her changing her mind or
simply mistakes, or because she didn't have any design experience.
There were no blueprints for this house. She was just like, hey,
you know what, never mind, forget that hallway, let's go
over here. But okay, let's get into some of the history.
Sarah Winchester was born as Sarah Lockwood Party and was
born in New Haven, Connecticut, in eighteen thirty nine. She
(06:29):
grew up comfortably in a well off family. She attended
some of the best schools in the area and learned
four different languages. In eighteen sixty two, when she was
twenty three, she married William Wart Winchester. William and Sarah
wed and started their life as a married couple in Connecticut.
But then William got to work at where else but
the family business, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. This company
(06:50):
made the Winchester Repeating rifle, essentially a single barrel rifle
capable of holding a couple of rounds, and this business
made them rich. Oh yeah. Four years into their marriage,
in eighteen sixty six, Sarah gave birth to a daughter.
They named her Annie. Tragically, the baby died only a
few weeks later, stricken by marasmus. Perhaps obviously, Mrs Winchester
(07:14):
was never the same. Meanwhile, the gun that won the West,
a K Model seventy three, was released in eighteen seventy three.
In eighteen eighty, William's father and the owner of Winchester
Repeating Arms, died, leaving his company to his son. William
himself died in one from tuberculosis, leaving Sarah with half
(07:35):
of the shares of the Winchester company. And also that
twenty six thousand dollars a day we mentioned earlier, and
a lump sum of twenty million dollars or five hundred
million dollars in today's money. This was another blow to
Sarah's psyche her husband's death. Some believed, to seek comfort
from her grief, she sought out a medium, and the
(07:58):
popular telling of the story, the medium did not provide comfort,
but instead added to Sarah's turmoil, insinuating that vengeful spirits
were targeting her, in particular vengeful ghost who had died
at the wrong end of a Winchester rifle. They were
behind the deaths of her husband and child, according to
this medium and in this story, and if Sarah wasn't careful,
(08:21):
she would be their next victim. Wow. Can you imagine
getting that advice from a mediums night? The medium advised
Sarah to go out west and build a house large
enough for all the spirits haunting her. And again this
seeing a medium wasn't uncommon at the time. A lot
(08:41):
of women lost their loved ones during the Civil War
and we're looking for ways to communicate with them. During
this time, people were bombarded with advertisements for moving out west.
And this is because California had only recently been incorporated
into the US, and the government on folks to move
out there. So maybe the medium was working for the government,
(09:06):
or maybe Sarah just saw an ad and acted upon it.
You know, we do that all the time now, not
that specifically, but so Sarah when Chester, she didn't need
to be told twice, and she made her way out
west to San Francisco, California, very quickly. Yes, however, she
found the weather they're really messed with her arthritis, so
she moved to San Jose four. She had purchased forty
(09:29):
acres of land, which grew into a hundred sixty acres,
and began building on it. She would continue building on
it until her death nearly forty years later. In n
At first, she contracted construction workers, perhaps numbering thirteen at
the time, to build an eight room house. Over the years,
the project ballooned, growing bigger and bigger. Her original intent
(09:49):
was to build a house big enough for her sisters
and herself, so no plans were drawn up, and she
designed it somewhat haphazardly, or perhaps designed it. It's a
strong word, you know. She called it Yaada villa. She
paid her workers well and often purchased them homes to
live in while they worked on her home. On top
of the construction crew, she employed eighteen servants and eighteen gardeners.
(10:12):
They split shifts so that they could work twenty four seven. Allegedly,
they only stopped when Sarah died and left so abruptly
that nails were left half hammered. I find that hard
to believe, but that is how the Internet tells it
in several places. Its story. It is a good story.
She insisted that only red would be used, even though
(10:34):
she didn't like how it looked, so workers were instructed
to cover it up with a stain and faux grain,
which ended up being twenty thousand gallons of paint. The
house also featured some technological rarities of that time, like
indoor plumbing, including indoor running hot water, forced air heating,
and gas lighting operated by pushing a button. So, of course,
(10:57):
it didn't take too long for rumors to starched by
about the house and its owners. Locals and workers on
the project believed it to be haunted all kinds of things,
bells rained by themselves, window opening closing seemingly on their own.
Some workers purportedly claimed every day she held seances to
reach good spirits. Some believed her communications with these good
(11:17):
spirits were the impetus behind her ever shifting design ideas.
Stories abound about Sarah that she refused to be photographed,
that she refused to grant Teddy Roosevelt's request for an
audience with the Winchester widow. And we have to remember two.
At this time, any woman living by herself, owning her
own property was caused for gossip. Take that and multiply
(11:40):
it by an enormous, eye catching mansion, and stories were
sure to be rife. Even these days, A few things
are scarier than a woman living by herself. Agreed, all
this haunted stuff is fun. But historian jen and bow
(12:01):
him Um apologies if I'm mispronouncing your name, argues that
it was less a protection against angry ghost and more
of a hobby. A lot of these stories don't come
from Winchester herself or any historical records, kind of like
we said, but books written in the nineties sixties, after
the tourist attraction had been open for several decades. The
houses quirks could have been a result of a changing
(12:24):
mind and like design experience, as we said, and or
could have been away for Sarah to remind herself of
the good time she had with her husband William building
their house in New Haven. But let's talk about some
of those quirks. Yes, let's go. So. Winchester thought that
the sounds of constant construction would cover up any supernatural sounds.
Smart to mean. She sought to confuse ghosts with hidden passages,
(12:45):
windows in the floors, upside down pillars, ridiculously shallow covered
and deaden stairwells, not stairways to heaven. Different thing. Yeah,
exactly one door opens the door to nowhere, to a
twelve foot drop about three point seven ms is nicknamed
the mother in law suit, which seems odd as she
(13:05):
loved the stained glass windows there are heavily featured throughout
the house, and many of them designed by Tiffany and Company.
Which is they again? I like that? Let me go see.
Those two are inscribed with quotes from Shakespeare wide unclassed
the tables of their thoughts, and these same thoughts people,
this little world. People have put a lot of thought
(13:26):
to why she chose those two quotes. I would have
a thing on that for a while. We'll get back
to you. The house is also rife with iterations of
the number thirteen. Like we said earlier, there are some
stories that she hired construction workers and shifts of thirteen.
Hard to say if that's actually true, but you can't
say that it's true in the house because there's evidence
(13:46):
thirteen coat hooks, thirteen panels on the ceiling, thirteen bathrooms,
but only one functioned to prevent ghosts from haunting it,
particularly this what is it called this? Piggott Yeah Um.
Decorative spider web patterns appear throughout the house as well,
which at the time I believed to be good luck.
(14:07):
One staircase near the cure dream as forty four steps
and seven turns. The historian we mentioned earlier believes that
this has more to do with Sarah's arthritis and less
to do with bamboozling spirits. The room that is thought
to have been a seance room has one entrance and
three exits. One cabinet extends through thirty rooms. I have
(14:30):
got to see this place, Samantha. Um. There's a section
of the house referred to as the Hall of Fires
due to the seven sources of heat feeding into it.
Um and that historian thinks again that this has to
do with providing relief for Sarah's arthritis, and according to legend,
each night she slept in a different bed and took
secret passageway to us not to be followed. Some theories
suggests she believed that when construction on the house stop,
(14:52):
she would die. Other theories positive she thought the earthquake
that took out three stories of the house was caused
by spirits who realized her project was close to completion.
And yet another day puts forward that Sarah was actually
a member of a mystic society or mystic societies, and
perhaps inspired by Francis Bacon, the English philosopher. In eighty eight,
(15:12):
Sarah's niece, Marian Merriman moved in to the house and
remained there for fifteen years. At the time of Sarah's
death to heart failure in nine two, the house posted
a whopping ten thousand windows, two thousand doors, not all
that can be walked through, and then yes, the one
sixty rooms, which is actually an estimate forty seven series,
(15:32):
thirteen bathrooms, six kitchens, three elevators, and two basements. She
had invested five point five million dollars in the mansion,
and in today's money that would be about seven point
seven million, and it's a beautiful piece of Queen and
Revival architecture. While she left most of her belongings to
relatives and nonprofits, there were thirteen parts to her will.
(15:54):
The will did not name anyone as the new owner
of the house. She did leave a lot of the
furniture to her niece, who auctioned off most of it.
One story goes that it took six months to get
all of the furniture out um The house itself was
auctioned off after praisers declared its strange designed rendered it worthless.
So the house was leased by John and Main Brown
(16:15):
forty five thousand dollars, who originally planned to build one
of the America's first roller coasters on the space, but
after the public expressed so much interest in the house itself,
they shifted gears, opening up for tours, which is smart.
The roller coaster was never built. They opened up Sarah's gardens,
calling them Winchester Park, and a few years later the
Browns purchased the house outright On how areeen Night in
(16:38):
Harry Houdini, the magician, stopped by the mansion to get
to the bottom of the house's paranormal reputation. Instead, he
left feeling even more confused and debbed it the Mystery House.
Within a decade it was being marketed as such. So
just to be clear, this is a year after it's
opened for tours. They already got like a celebrity coming
(16:59):
in course, in June, John Brown dies, his wife and
two daughters completely take over running tours until Maymie Brown
died in ninety one. In the nineteen sixties, a road
was renamed Winchester Boulevard and the gardens were closed to
make way for Century theaters, and the Winchester Wax Museum
opened and the Winchester Mystery House was incorporated. The house
(17:22):
was bestowed with State Historic Landmark status and added to
the National Registry of Historic Places in nineteen seventy four.
Throughout the eighties and nineties, the property was updated and
new tours added in It was labeled as a San
Jose Landmark. The two thousands saw even more renovations, updates,
and restorations. In sixteen, a secret attic was discovered containing
(17:43):
an organ, a dress form and sewing machine, a couch,
and some paintings. Forty forty new rooms were open to
the public, and this is why again, the room number
is an estimate because they're not sure they've found all
the rooms in that dang house. You just want to
go to say that for a month, don't you. Yeah.
I don't think they'd let me. But if anyone listening
(18:06):
as any connections, I'll go with you for sure. Alright,
perfect and then yes. The movie starring Helen Murin, called
Winchester debut for seventy two hours, the house was closed
to tourists for a jam packed filming schedule. Mirren said
of Sarah Winchester, she went into mourning and stayed in
mourning for the rest of her life. When you lose someone,
(18:27):
the losses can be so unbearable, so difficult, that the
only way you can deal with your grief is by
feeling that they are still with you in some way
or another. And if you're interested, the costumes from the
movie are on display at the site. They were donated
to the site by the filmmakers. So clearly we have
an interest with this mystery house, which is so fascinating
(18:49):
because she was someone who it seemed, shy away from attention,
wasn't into it, And now so many tourists have gone
and try to get to the bottom of her motivations.
What was she really thinking. We've made up all of
these stories about many legends, so many legends. Um. I
(19:11):
want to see it so badly. I wonder how many
horror films have started with the furniture to being sold
and being cards or something. I myself was in a
horror movie where it started that way and it did
not end well for me. I didn't what a fun
death scene that was. Um. Yeah, the just the interest
(19:33):
we have with with these kinds of things, I mean,
it's fascinating, it's it's historical one as well as you
never know. The creativity and thought process is fantastic. And
it is beautiful. I mean, looking outside before you go in,
if you know that it's a mystery house, you can
(19:54):
see some signs that there's something kind of wonky going
on in there. But from the outside it's just it's
beautiful and I can just like imagine her living there, right,
And if you've actually visited it, please send us pictures.
We would love to see somethingtures if you're able to
get any. Um. So now we're at the end, we're
(20:27):
gonna do our little shout outs. Yeah, I'm gonna shout
out to Uh, we're gonna shout out going the history route. Um.
Some of our podcasts, So What's Her Name Podcast with
host Olivia and Katie talk about fascinating women you may
not have heard of, like Mother Shipton and Infamous Witch
from England. That was a fun one. And then Notorious
Women Podcast which is a fun podcast with Lovetta and
(20:50):
Miriam taking a comical look at women in history. And
it's super fun if you get to go to listen
to those two. So shout out to you guys like
your podcast. Yes, um, and if you have any shout
outs that you want us to shout out, please send them.
Let it all out, send it our way. And for
for our listeners who are celebrating Halloween, please have a
(21:11):
fun and safe Helloween. If you've got a feminist costume,
oh we would love to see those, We would love it.
Let's feature those. I was a panda, You were a panda,
You were very you were increasingly grumpy, Hot with hand,
hot with unicorn corn panda. Yeah, it was great. With
(21:32):
my captain, what are you buy? You're my Captain Bucky? Now,
Captain Bucky, I was the winner soldier because it's my
favorite costume and you didn't get to see it at
Dragon Con, so I had to share you too good
to Oh, thank you. That's all I live for. You
can send to those costume pictures, or your shout outs
(21:53):
or anything else to our email address, Stuff Media mom
Stuff at i heeart media dot com. You can also
find us on Twitter or at mom Stuff podcast, or
on Instagram at Stuff I've Never Told You. Thanks as
always to a super producer, Andrew Howard. Thank you, Andrew,
and thanks to you for listening. Stuff I've Never Told
You the production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart
(22:15):
Radio app Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen to your favorite
shows
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